The First FAO-CFA Joint International Conference on Sustainable Aquaculture was held in Fuzhou on March 18.

China is the world’s largest aquaculture producer, accounting for more than 56% of the total global output. Over recent years, China’s demand for aquatic products is on a constant rise, but the amount of captures is going downwards instead of picking up. This situation necessitates increase in output.

With a focus on the sustainable development of modern aquaculture, Cui Lifeng, director of the Chinese Fisheries Association, summarized the modern aquaculture sector with the following ten words, namely, water, aquatic species, fodder, health, quality, environment, equipment, intelligence, efficiency and benefit, and industry chain. Among them, “health” refers to the health of cultivated species, which requires efforts to step up disease control and prevention in aquaculture and establish a system to curb diseases in all respects of aquaculture. “Quality” means the quality of cultured aquatic products, which must meet the need of the market and consumers. “Environment” indicates ecological environment. It is not only necessary to conserve the environment where aquatic products are cultivated, but also important to protect the surrounding water areas. 

Experts exchanged their opinions in the event. Moreover, industrial practices were elaborated.

China’s cultivation of large yellow croaker is highly concentrated in eastern Fujian. Fuzhou and Ningde are joining hands to build a large yellow croaker industry cluster in Fujian Province with international reach. The province strives to realize a total output value of more than RMB 23.4 bln across the large yellow croaker industry chain by 2028.

Huang Zhitao, a fellow at the aquaculture research office under the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, shared his studies on what China’s large yellow croaker industry could draw from Atlantic salmon cultivation practices in Norway from a comparative perspective. According to him, Norway performs well in determining who are qualified for cultivation, how many can be cultivated and how to ensure sustainability through three pillar management strategies, namely, cultivation licensing system, restraints from environmental carrying capacity and incentive policy tools.  (Feng Xuezhu)